Manzi is pleased to invite you to a special screening and talk by video artist Nguyễn Trinh Thi and two guest speakers - artist SơnX and researcher Trần Ngọc Hiếu.

At the event, apart from screening her film 'Letters from Panduranga’, Nguyễn Trinh Thi will share with audience the process of making the video and sound installation 'Landscape #4: How to Improve the World’ which is on display at Manzi Exhibition Space and her 'landscape' series, including "Letters from Panduranga". In dialogue with Nguyễn Trinh Thi, Trần Ngọc Hiếu will present his own observations of how landscape/scenery was re-interpreted in Trinh Thi's films, while artist Nguyễn Xuân Sơn will share his thoughts of sound and music in film making and moving image installation.

Please note that the talk will be conducted in Vietnamese.
Free admission. Please register by filling in this event's reservation confirmation section.

About the guest speakers:
Artist Nguyễn Xuân Sơn (aka SonX) studied music (1986-1990) and painting (2002-2007) at the Hanoi Academy of Theater and Cinema. Sơn worked as the main composer for Song of Prayer (2000), Drought and Rain Vol.1 (2011), Drought and Rain Vol.2 (2005), Flying Line (2008), White Body (2009) choreographed by Director Ea Sola; Life in the box (2007) choreographed by Tran Ly Ly; His recent works presented at museums and theaters around the world include: Broken Tale (2015), Old and Present Vietnamese Sound Culture (2015), Sigh (2016), Two missed Moons (2018)

Trần Ngọc Hiếu has been working as a lecturer at the Hà Nội National University of Education since 2001 and earned his PhD Degree in Literary Theory in 2012. His research interests include literary theories, contemporary art and Vietnamese modern literature. Hiếu both writes and translates academic texts, his work has been published in the Literary Studies Journal (Nghiên cứu văn học), the Journal of Foreign Literature (Văn học nước ngoài) and the Culture and Arts Journal (Tạp chí Văn hóa nghệ thuật). Hieu co-wrote the chapter "Listening to nature, rethinking the past : A reading of the representations of forests and rivers in post-war Vietnamese narratives" in "Southeast Asian Ecocriticism: Theories, Practices, Prospects" edited by John Charles Ryan.

About 'Letters from Panduranga’
The essay film, made in the form of a letter exchange between a man and a woman, was inspired by the fact that the government of Vietnam plans to build the country’s first two nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan (formerly known as Panduranga), right at the spiritual heart of the Cham indigenous people, threatening the survival of this ancient matriarchal Hindu culture that stretches back almost two thousand years.

At the border between documentary and fiction, the film shifts audience attention between foreground and background, between intimate portraits and distant landscapes, offering reflections around fieldwork, ethnography, art, and the role of the artist.
Intertwining circumstances of the past, present, and future, the film also unfolds a multi-faceted historical and on-going experience of colonialisms, and looks into the central ideas of power and ideology in our everyday.

Information about 'Landscape #4: How to change the world' and the artist can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/225876675573524

The event is supported by the Goethe Institut and FAMLAB (British Council Vietnam)

For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/events/419247752685091